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A PROPOSAL to restrict entry to the Philippines for travelers arriving from five countries with confirmed infections caused by a new variant of Sars-CoV-2 detected in the United Kingdom (UK) will be discussed during the Inter-Institutional Working Group (IATF) for the Meeting on Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases on Monday, December 28, 2020.
In a statement on Sunday, December 27, the Department of Health (DOH) said that Secretary Francisco Duque III ordered the department’s technical teams to review the proposal, which will ban the entry of passengers from Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, South Africa. and Japan. .
These five countries have confirmed cases of infection caused by the highly communicable B117 variant that was first detected in the UK. Sars-CoV-2 causes coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
“This (proposal) is being reviewed along with the new risk classification for provinces, HUC (highly urbanized cities) and ICC (independent component cities), and the anticipated increase after the holidays,” said DOH.
At present, only travelers from the UK are prohibited from entering the Philippines under IATF Resolution No. 90. This restriction, which took effect at 12:01 a.m. on December 24, will apply until the first two weeks of January 2021.
Travelers arriving from all five countries are currently allowed in, but are strictly required to undergo a 14-day quarantine in New Clark City, regardless of the results of their RT-PCR tests.
RT-PCR refers to the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction test, which detects Sars-CoV-2 in nasopharyngeal swab samples.
All positive test results from these travelers are sent to the Philippine Genome Center, the Tropical Medicine Research Institute or the National Institutes of Health at the University of the Philippines for genome sequencing and detection of the UK variant.
In a virtual press conference, the Undersecretary of Health, María Rosario Vergeire, said that they were monitoring the five countries for community transmission, which will be the basis for a travel ban.
“We do not want this variant to enter the country. That is why we are doing all these measures,” Vergeire said.
“There are many implications when travel restrictions or bans are applied. That is why we need to have a thorough study,” he added.
The Acting Representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the Philippines, Socorro Escalante, said any restrictions must be based on evidence.
“The border restriction will have a significant economic and humanitarian impact. Therefore, if we are going to decide on this very restrictive intervention, we really need to consider all dimensions,” Escalante said.
During the meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday, December 26, Escalante said that the WHO recommendation for now is not to restrict travel, but to make sure that there are public health interventions and that the country is ready to mitigate any transmission of the new strain.
He also encouraged the government to conduct a more comprehensive risk assessment of the situation, include genome sequencing in bio-surveillance measures, and strengthen risk communication. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / HDT / SunStar Philippines)
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